Here is a listening tip for Rifftides readers in or near New York City.
On one of his periodic visits to the United States, the Czech pianist Emil Viklický will 
have a return engagement this week with the multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson. (In the photo, Robinson is on the right.) They will play on Wednesday evening at the Bohemian National Hall of the Czech Center in Manhattan. The occasion will be a program of music in memory of Josef Škvorecký (1924-2012), the writer known for Dvorák in Love, The Bass Saxophone and The Engineer of Human Souls, among other novels. Martin Wind will be on bass, the Finnish drummer Klaus Suonsaari on drums. For concert details, go here.
The center’s announcement did not say which of his dozens of horns Robinson will import from his New Jersey instrument farm. They could include anything from the sopranino saxophone to the contrabass sax, the trumpet to the tuba to the theremin. Given the Škvorecký connection, the bass saxophone would make sense. Almost certainly, he will bring the tenor sax, on which he has been doing some of his most expressive work. In this video from their Czech Center concert in a 2010 encounter, Viklický and Robinson play “Touha” (Desire) from Viklický’s 2009 album Sinfonietta.
Viklický’s involvement in a program honoring Škvorecký makes sense. The two were friends, fellow survivors of the Soviet occupation of their country. See this Rifftides archive post for the story.
The nonagenarian pianist presented de Barros with every biographer’s hope, unrestricted access to his subject’s personal papers and nearly unrestricted access to her private thoughts. He made the most of it, turning exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews into a true story with the sweep of a novel. From the early discovery of McPartland’s musical gift through her wartime service, her ecstatic and stormy marriage to Jimmy McPartland, her growth as a pianist, her deep affair with Joe Morello, and the radio show that made her a national figure, she has had a fascinating life. It makes a splendid read.
Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band had three fewer musicians than most big jazz outfits. Its size permitted precision, flexibility and subtlety, yet the band had the power of sprung steel. In this concert from a half century ago, the CJB is as fresh as yesterday. Arrangements by Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Johnny Mandel set standards to which big band writers still aspire. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis inspired Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Conte Candoli, Gene Quill and Zoot Sims to some of the best soloing of their careers. This beautifully produced issue of the complete concert is a basic repertoire item.
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